I spent eleven and a half hours yesterday trying to connect my newer laptop, my older laptop, the laptop the school issued me, and my phone with Zoom, the program that I am supposed to use for school teletherapy, and I am allowed to use for home health.
The Internet isn't as fast as I really need at home, I could not connect with the work laptop at all, and I kept having feedback loops.
I finally went into school more out of troubleshooting than anything else. The work laptop is newer than anything that I own, but I think that my three-year-old $300 laptop and my five-year-old phone are both faster. However, Zoom worked fine on the work laptop at school, but I kept having feedback, even when I had my phone over twenty feet away!
I am supposed to work in the resource room, but the teacher was already there, and she must have been working with kindergartners, because she was demonstrating an exhausting amount of enthusiasm and energy.
She was also far too loud for me to try to hold a session in the same room and she did not need me causing feedback loops!
I went to her old room, which was supposed to be used by the high school for something, but that wasn't happening.
I tried to find a solution on-line for the feedback, but the very first page that I tried to read, on Zoom's website, was blocked, so I used my personal laptop.
Everything said to not have two people in the same conversation in the same room, but over twenty feet away wasn't far enough?!
Everything just said to not have two people in the same conversation in the same room. I had them over twenty feet apart! That wasn't adequate?! I eventually found out that headsets drastically reduce feedback loops.
I finally did a session with one student from the backyard. The Internet was a bit too slow, but there is no way that I could have done therapy at the kitchen table, with Mom, Hallmark, my brother, and his provider.
Since I was in the sun I couldn't see my screen.
My supervisor wants me to work from school, but I would rather keep our germs home, and avoid other peoples'. I couldn't find any outdoor ethernet cables so I just bought an indoor one for now and will order an outdoor one.
It sounds like the proper technique for running ethernet is anchoring it to trim and putting it in conduit for the run between the house and the shed. I read that a 6" trench is adequate, and 6" from the electrical wire, but I need to keep reading.
I saw three clients this afternoon. Usually that involves two hours of driving. Using Zoom wasn't the same and I wish that I could see them in-person, but I saved two hours of driving!
